A Normal Life or The Normal Life
by PurpleNurples
Summary: Dean and Sam take a break from their usual gig in order to visit their estranged sister, who they find out, has many secrets. But she's not the only one apparently, one of the brothers has been keeping a secret of his own.
1. Chapter 1

The two brothers, Dean and Sam Winchester, were on the road again in their 1967 Chevy Impala. Dean, the older one, was driving while Sam sat on the passenger side surfing the net on his laptop.

"You find a gig for us or what?" Dean asked after a long period of silence in the car.

"No. Nothing," Sam replied as he rubbed his eyes, tired from staring at the screen for so long.

"What do you mean nothing? There's always something to hunt."

"Well, apparently not. Nothing strange is going on anywhere—at least nothing strange enough to make the headlines." Sam shut his laptop and sighed as he slouched back in his seat. "Where are we anyway?" He grabbed the map spread out on the dashboard and looked at it.

"Fort Chiswell."

"Virginia?"

"Yup." Dean turns up the radio and starts drumming to the rhythm on the steering wheel. A second later, he stops and turns the radio back down. "Hey, what do you say we go drop by Carley's place—see how she's doing."

Sam looked at him, surprised. "You want to go see Carley?"

"Yeah, why not?"

"I don't know. Because she hates your guts."

"She doesn't hate me. Everyone loves me."

"Yeah, says you," Sam scoffed.

"Come on, Sammy. What do you think?"

"Do you even know where she is? It's been like six years."

"Well, that's where you come in, trusty sidekick geek boy." Dean smirked as Sam a look. "I mean, what, last we heard she lived here is VA right?" Sam nodded as he opened back up his laptop. "So just start from there."

"Do you think she'll even remember us or want to see us?"

"Of course, she would. Who wouldn't?"

"But Dean, it's been years since we last spoke with her. She probably hates us just for not keeping in touch with her."

"So? We're still her family."

"Yeah, her very estranged family."

"But family nonetheless." Dean concluded. Sam paused, surprised at Dean's insistence to go find Carley. Dean glanced at Sam as he noticed him staring at him. "What?"

Sam chuckled.

"What?" Dean repeated.

"Why now? After all these years we've been separated from her, why do you want to go see her now?"

"I don't know, man," Dean shrugged. Dean was asking himself the same question Sam just asked him. He really didn't know. Actually, he was even surprised at himself for bringing it up. "I just—I don't know. With everything's that's happened with you, with—with Dad—I mean, yeah, maybe you're right. Maybe she will hate us for not staying in touch with her. I mean, heck, she probably still hates me for those stupid fights we got into and the pranks I played on the both of you. Yeah, maybe she hates us for not being around her like a real family. But what if she doesn't? I mean, we can both agree that even at a young age, the kid was pretty smart and mature compared to other kids her age. I mean, she understands situations better than adults, even." Sam nodded in agreement. "So maybe she doesn't hate us… But even if she did, I still think she deserves to know about her family. I'm sure the kid has lots of questions that've been unanswered for the past six years. If you ask me, I think right now's just about as good as any time. Don't you?"

"Yeah…" Sam said softly, taking in every word Dean said.

The two sat in silence for a moment, thinking about Carley, thinking about their dad—thinking about everything's that happened in their weird, crazy lives lately. Then, Sam's laptop began to beep. They both glanced at it.

"What is it?" Dean asked.

"Found her," he said as he typed on the keyboard.

"Where?"

Wide-eyed and surprised, Sam said, "Fort Hunt. Aren't we near that area?"

"Yup," Dean said as he pointed to the green road sign to their left that they were about to pass that said the exit was about 85 miles away.

"Well," Dean said, "looks like we're going to Hunt after all." He paused, trying his best not to laugh. "Get it? Going to Hunt? _Fort_ Hunt?" Dean could no longer stifle his laughter, so he let it out. "Man, I crack myself up." He continues to laugh at his own stupid, corny joke and Sam just rolls his eyes, only somewhat amused because he can't believe how stupid his brother is.

So, the two Winchesters drove off, heading toward Fort Hunt. Little did they know that a supernatural hunt awaited them after all in the little town of Fort Hunt.


	2. Chapter 2

The brothers drove for another hour or so before finally stopping at a gas station in Fort Hunt, Virginia.

"Be right back," he told Sam. "You want anything?"

"No," Sam answered back without looking up, his eyes glued to his laptop.

Dean stepped out of the car to fill it up. After he placed the nozzle in the tank and set it on lock so it would pump gas by itself, he headed inside the convenience store to grab some snacks. A few moments later, he walked out with a six-pack of beer bottles, a large bag of peanut M&Ms, which he held in his mouth, several bars of Twix and Snickers and a bag of Doritos. It was obvious he was already munching on the M&Ms and Doritos.

He headed towards the car and threw all the items in the back seat, except for the bag of M&Ms and two beer bottles which he set in the front. He offered a bottle to Sam, who gladly received it and said, "Thanks."

Sam opened the bottle of beer and continued working on his laptop, while Dean checked on the gas. He finished filling it up and placed the nozzle back in its place, and closed his gas tank. "So, which way do we go to next?" Dean said as he got inside the car.

"I don't know yet. Hang on."

"Hang on? Sam, you've been on that thing for over an hour. Tell me you got something, man." He closed the door and they both looked at each other.

Sam looked up at Dean, mightily pissed. He was getting pissed because Dean didn't seem to realize all the hard work and time it takes to hack into security systems. "Dean, you know, it's not that easy hacking into the system. It takes time. All we got to go on is the last activity of Carley's checkcard two days ago which was used around this area. Besides that, we got nothing. So would you please chill out while I try to locate her? It's not like she has a freakin' GPS on her that we could track. Jeez."

Dean stopped for a moment, surprised at Sam's attitude. Then he smirked and slapped Sam on the shoulder for being a genius.

"Dude! What the heck? I'm trying to work here." Dean just continued to smirk. Finally, Sam caught on that something was up. "What?"

"Her jewelry."

"What?"

"Her jewelry. Either her necklace, bracelet or ring. I forget. But one of them has a GPS installed on it remember? Actually, I think it was her bracelet. Yeah. Anyways, Dad always wanted to know where each of us were in case we got separated during a hunt. Me and you already had ours at the time and he wanted to give her one, too so he made us give it to her on her birthday because he knew that if he gave it to her, she'd figure it out."

Sam looked clueless. "GPS? What are you talking about? Whoa, hang on a second. Are you telling me I had one on me too?" Sam asked, getting ticked off.

"Crap," Dean thought, realizing that Sam actually didn't know any of this and that this might anger him. "No." Dean answered, trying to avoid another argument. "W—not _on _you, at least. It was in your laptop."

"What?"

"Well, what else were we supposed to do, Sam? You walked out on the family and we didn't know if you'd be okay. I mean, come on, you hated the hunt so bad you even threw the necklace in freakin' garbage disposal. But apparently, dad saw that one coming because when he got you that laptop he had a GPS installed in it."

Sam couldn't believe that they planted a device on him. That made it seem like even though he thought he was in control of his life, he actually wasn't. He felt betrayed.

Dean could sense Sam's anger begin to rise just from the look of his eyes. "Sam, Dad only did it because he was worried about you. So was I…" he said uncomfortably.

"That doesn't make it right, Dean." Sam retorted, anger still clear in his voice.

"Yeah…but—"

"You have one too?"

"Yeah!" he said in a "Duh" sort of way. "But I took my GPS off," he snorted. Sam just gave him a pissed off look. "But, dude, come on, that's not the point. That's in the past. We're talking about Carley right now. We're talking about a way to find Carley."

Sam finally let his pissed-off mood subside and complied with Dean. "Alright. Well, you said it yourself, the kid is pretty smart, so who's to say that she didn't figure it out already after all these years and dumped it somewhere?"

Dean paused a moment. "Because…"

Sam waited for an answer. "Because what?"

"She wouldn't do that." Dean said, obviously trying to avoid giving Sam a straight answer.

"How do you know?"

"Because…I know everything," Dean smirked.

Sam scoffed.

"Well, then. Why don't you check the GPS genius, and prove me wrong?" Dean said.

Sam scoffed again, "Whatever. What the number?"

Dean gave Sam the number and they both checked it out. During the whole process, Dean had prayed and hoped that he was right, not only to prove to Sam that he in fact really did know everything…or so he'd like to think, but also because if he was wrong, then it meant that they had lost Carley. Sure, they'd be able to find her after Sam did some more hacking and digging into the security system, but if they did it that way, it meant that Carley did figure everything out and dumped her bracelet off somewhere, breaking the bond that the boys had with her…at least the bond Dean had with her. When he gave her that bracelet, he told her something—something that made her eyes twinkle, something that made her believe every word he said. He meant everything he told her too. So, Dean figured that if she still believed in him and in what he told her years ago, she would've kept that bracelet. If she no longer had it, then it only meant one thing: that she no longer believed the words Dean told her the day he gave her the bracelet. It would mean that she had lost hope in probably the only thing that had given her hope growing up. Without that bracelet, she'd be lost. Without that bracelet, he'd be lost. By giving the bracelet up would mean that she had given up on them. Dean wouldn't accept that. He couldn't.

Dean anxiously waited as Sam kept clicking and typing on his laptop. But there was no way he would show Sam he was worried that he was wrong. So instead, Dean kept his gleeful smile on which pissed off Sam because he knew that more than likely, that he wouldn't be able to prove Dean wrong on this one. Dean seemed too confident. Still, Sam in a way, although he'd love to find Carley in this fashion rather than finding her through digging, wished that Carley did give up the bracelet, just so he could wipe the smirk off of his brother's face. He hated Dean's smirk…especially this particular one. Dean always seemed to have different ways of showing his facial expressions. He always had a different smirk for different situations. How can someone smirk different than they usually do? Who knows? But Dean could…and Sam hated it. It was getting under his skin. He loved the guy, but man, sometimes he just wanted to smack him.

The laptop beeped. Sam sulked and Dean grinned.

"HA!" Dean rubbed in. "What's the address?"

Without complete and absolute irritation in his voice, Sam said dryly, "1120 Rosseu Lane."

"Ha!" Dean chuckled again. "Told you. I know everything." Dean smirked again, started the car, and drove toward Carley's place.

Sam sat there, annoyed and irritated. He shut his laptop and thought, "Man, I hate that smirk."

Return to Top


	3. Chapter 3

I don't think I like how this is going...completely went in a different direction than what I originally intended. I might just delete this story/chapter altogether. I DON'T KNOW!!! For those who read this, please let me know what you think. If I should/shouldn't change it or keep going. Arg!

Hope you like it...

* * *

As the boys continued to drive down the road, their EMF meter began to sound. They both looked back towards it.

"That the EMF?" Dean asked Sam as he tried keeping his eyes on the road while at the same time trying to look where the sound was coming from.

"Sounds like it." Sam answered.

Sam turned around in his sight and began to dig for it under all the clothes and weapons in their back seat. After a while, he finally found it. He grabbed it and pointed it to where it was reading. It began to sound even louder as he pointed it to his right, towards the woods. Dean and Sam both looked at each other.

"Something's up." Sam said.

"Ya think?" Dean answered as he pulled the Impala to the side.

Dean parked the car as the EMF meter continued to go crazy. Dean, too, was starting to go crazy.

"Dude, would you shut the thing off! It's driving me nuts."

Sam laughed as he switched the EMF meter off.

They both exited the car and faced the direction where the EMF was going off. They both just stood there for a moment, wondering what was inside those woods.

"Should we go check it out?" Sam said, looking at Dean.

Dean shrugged. "Why, man?"

"Um, maybe because something's out there."

"Yeah. Deer."

"The EMF wouldn't go off cause of some deer."

"Yeah, but dude, we're in the middle of nowhere right now. It's not like that thing or whatever out there is gonna be able to hurt anyone."

"It could hurt the deer."

Dean paused.

"Please tell me you're joking."

"Dean. Something supernatural is out there. Don't you think we should go check it out?"

"But dude, we're on our way to see Carley."

"So, what? We can't go check this thing out first? Dean, it's been years since we last saw her. I don't think she mind a few hours delay. Besides, she doesn't even know we're here or even coming. What does it matter?"

They stared at each other for a moment. Dean still seemed against going to checkout the woods.

Sam spoke up again.

"By the way, seriously, not that I mind seeing the kid, but what cued you to even start thinking about the kid. After all these years, you want to go see her. That was pretty random. What's going on?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean is, you seem pretty determined to go see her, and I'm wondering why that is."

"What? What are you talking about? You know what? Forget it. If it's bugging you that much then fine. Let's go hunting."

Dean stormed off towards the trunk to get some weapons. Sam stood there for a moment, watching Dean. He could tell something was up but he couldn't tell what. Ever since Dean first mentioned Carley, he'd been curious what brought her to mind. He felt like Dean was hiding something from him. He could tell Dean was avoiding his questions. But, for the moment, Sam had to put aside all these questions and thoughts in order to check out the woods.

Dean finished getting some weapons. With a shotgun in one hand, he tossed the duffel bag to Sam, and shut the trunk.

"Let's go," Dean said as he led the way, still a little annoyed from their previous conversation.

As they walked deeper into the woods, they heard what sounded like growling coming from ahead of them. They knew something was there, and it definitely wasn't a deer. They kept walking and soon came upon a dead deer in their path, completely bloody and gutted by something.

"Ok, this thing is definitely not a deer." Dean said as he and Sam examined the dissected deer. "There is no way a deer can do that kind of damage."

"Ya think?" Sam retorted.

They heard some yelling ahead of them, causing them to look up. They ran toward the voice.

"Come on, you big, ugly piece of crap! I'm right here!" They heard someone say.

"What the heck?" Dean said as they both continued to head towards that direction. They stopped when they saw something.

From a far off, they were able to see this girl, who looked to be around the seventeen or eighteen, running in front of them. A creature, which looked to be a mix of werewolf, a grizzly and a human being, was running after her.

"What is that?" Sam asked.

"I have no idea," Dean answered, just as confused as Sam.

Sam began to run after the creature again, when he noticed Dean wasn't following him.

"Dean. What are you doing?"

"I'm still tryng to figure out what that thing was."

"You mind if you try to figure that out later? We gotta help that girl."

"Help her? If you ask me, she's asking for it. I heard her taunting the thing."

"What?"

"Yeah. I think she's actually hunting this thing. I'll say, anyone dumb enough or should I say psycho enough to run off and play hide-and-seek with a creature that size deserves to get it."

"Dean!" Sam was getting pissed.

"Alright! I'm coming!"

They started running after them again.

"Where'd they go? You hear them?"

"No." Dean said as they looked around. "Chick's probably dead already." They stopped when they heard growling again.

"Over there!" Sam yelled as he began to run again.

As they drew closer, it go quiet. Ahead of them, they saw the creature lurking about, searching for the girl. Sam and Dean, too, were searching for the girl. The creature continued to walk around, growling as saliva dropped from its mouth. Then, from behind the creature, the girl popped out. She had a shotgun in her hand and fired the weapon. It made the thing fall back for a moment, but mainly, all it did was piss off the thing because it starting coming at her again. She kept firing as she kept running. Dean and Sam followed after her too.

Once she had a good head start, she turned around and faced the creature. She was ready to have a head on confrontation between the creature and the barrel of her shotgun. She fired at it. It stopped it for a moment. But soon, she realized it was still coming at her--this time much faster and angrier. Her eyes widened as she realized her plan wasn't working. Her plan was to lure the thing in and kill it before it ripped her to pieces. But, obviously her plan was falling apart. She run back to where she came from, hoping the 'going in circles' would slow down the creature. But, once again, her plan wasn't working.

She turned around again and fired her shotgun. She fired it once more, not realizing she was out of shells.

"Aw, crap," was all she could say as she glanced back and forth between her shotgun and the thing coming straight at her.

"Down!" She heard someone from behind her yell. She turned around quickly to see two men with shotguns of their own,

running at her. It was Dean and Sam. She gasped and ducked and put her head down as the man told her to get down again. As soon as she ducked, both Sam and Dean kept firing their weapons at the creature. It growled as the shots kept coming. Then in a flash, it disappeared.

"What the-"

"Where'd it go?" Sam asked confused.

"I don't know." Dean yelled back, asking himself the same thing.

The two turned back around to see the girl was now off the ground, staring straight at them, shocked.

Also shocked, Sam and Dean simultaneously said, "Carley?"


	4. Chapter 4

The three just stood there for a moment, staring at each other in surprise and in silence.

"W…what are you guys doing here?" Carley asked them.

"Actually, uh, we're here to see you," Sam spoke up.

"Really?"

Sam nodded.

"How'd you know I was here?"

"Well, we didn't. I mean, we were headed your way 'til we heard something coming from here. So we decided to check it out."

"Oh."

"What are you doing out here anyway?"

"I was trying to kill that thing but, as you can tell, my plan didn't exactly work the way I had hoped it would, mainly 'cause the thing keeps disappearing."

"What is that thing?"

"I don't know. Still trying to figure that one out myself."

Carley looked at Dean, who looked like he was in a daze. "You all right?" she asked him.

Out of the three of them, Dean looked surprised the most. He had no expectations whatsoever to see her out there. Another thing that surprised was how much she had grown. The last time he saw her, she was still a little kid. But now, she was all grown up…almost adult-like. But of course, he would never dare admit that to her.

"Am Ialright? Are _you _alright? You're bleeding," he said as he motioned to his own cheek with his finger to indicate to Carley where she was bleeding.

Carley touched her cheeked. "Ah, yeah. It was that thing's fault."

"What'd you do? Physically tussle with it?" Sam asked.

"Actually, no. My car did. Stupid thing jumped right in front of me as I was driving by. I thought it was a deer or something so I tried to swerve but it went the same way I was going. I slammed on my brakes—kinda lost control of my car but I managed to stay upright. Then that thing had to…ugh! My car…" Carley stopped mid-sentence, with her right fist clenched. She thought about her totaled car. She seemed too upset to continue.

"What happened?"

"Well, the thing lifted my car up and decided to play kickball with it. I did a 360 right into a ditch. That thing's freakin' strong."

"What'd it want with you?"

"I don't know. It was probably just waiting for anything that crossed paths with it first. But it pissed me off so I grabbed my shotgun and decided to run after the thing."

Dean seemed a little surprised at Carley's calmness about the situation. He was kinda expecting her to be not so calm after encountering a supernatural creature.

"So…you weren't surprised by it?"

"Yeah, I was surprised. I didn't exactly expect something to just pick up my car and throw it around."

"No. I meant, you weren't surprised at the thing itself? Like that it wasn't just a normal animal, but it was strong and it could disappear and stuff like that?"

"You mean, as in, it was supernatural?"

"Uh…yeah." He felt kinda stupid. He thought that maybe Carley had forgotten all about the hunt and the supernatural. Guess he was wrong.

Sam snickered at Dean, who in turn, gave him a look that said "shutup."

"Yeah. I haven't forgotten about the supernatural guys…or about the hunt."

"We never thought you did." Sam said. But basically, what he really meant to say was the _he _never thought she did. Sam just laughed inside about Dean's ignorance and his misjudging of Carley's knowledge and skill.

"So wait, you still hunt?" Dean said, trying to point the subject away from his ignorance.

"No, not exactly. Today was just kinda out of impulse. I mean, if I hunted, don't you think I'd have the right tools or done some research before risking my butt?"

"Well, you were always the one to take risks."

"What can I say? You rubbed off on me." She smiled, as did the boys.

"Speaking of tools, where'd you get that shotgun? We didn't leave you with that," Dean said.

"Yeah, I, um, I bought it," she said as she picked up her empty shotgun from the ground.

"You bought a shotgun?"

"Yeah, and some other stuff. But I forgot to load this one with rock salt, not that rock salt would've worked on the thing either."

Dean and Sam looked even more surprised now. Carley kinda read their looks.

"So, you no longer hunt unless by impulse but yet, you still have most of the supplies? Why? What do you do, kid?"

She just smiled, as if she didn't really wanna answer. "Take me home and I'll tell you?" she asked them.

They just looked at her, somewhat curious.

"We were gonna take you anyway," Sam said.

"Car nearby? I have to grab some stuff out of my trunk."

"Yeah, just behind us."

"Ok. I'll go get my stuff."

"Hey, we'll go with you."

"Okay," she said as she headed towards her car with Dean and Sam following her.

Once they reached her car, which was in the ditch, Sam and Dean looked stunned.

"Jeez. That thing did that to your car?" Dean asked.

Carley looked at him, pissed for bringing it up again.

"Sorry."

She pried her barely manageable trunk open. She took out a duffel bag and placed into it several books, folders, and several different guns and weapons.

"Dang, Carley. What in the world…" Dean said, looking at Carley.

"Hey, we had an agreement remember? Home."

Dean nodded but was still really bewildered at Carley; so was Sam.

As the three headed towards the Impala, Carley questioned them again.

"So, how'd you guys find me, anyway? Last time I heard from you guys was when I was still in Lawrence."

"You know, I would answer that question, but I'm thinking you already know the answer to that one." Dean said.

Carley tried to look innocent, before finally offering a smirk.

"Yeah, I thought so."

"Bracelet?"

"Yeah…" Dean said, somewhat guilty for not telling her about it. "You mad at me?"

"Naw," she said and shrugged. But somehow, Dean couldn't help but feel like a part of her still was mad at him. Sam seemed to see it to.

She walked ahead of them as she saw the Impala.

"Dude, you still driving this thing?" she asked Dean.

"Yeah. What's wrong with it?"

"It's so…old," she said as she made a disgusted look, causing Sam to laugh.

"Get in the car."

Carley opened the back door, placed her bag in the back before going in herself. Dean got in the driver's side and Sam in the passenger's. Once they were all settled in, Carley sat up to get in between the boys and rested her arms against the seat as she spoke to them.

"So, do you guys always like to stop and check out the woods if you hear strange noises?"

"Sammy does."

"Well, apparently, that's not exactly a bad thing." Sam said, defending himself. "Sometimes, people are out there and in trouble and need our help."

"And, of course, Sammy here always has to be the one to the rescue."

"Yeah, unlike Dean who has a cold heart."

"I do not have a cold heart. I'm just not a pussy like you always are."

"You mean a pussy who was gonna let Carley get mangled by that thing?"

"What?" Carley interrupted.

"Yeah. When the EMF went off towards your direction, I told him we should go check it out. Of course, he was reluctant but when anyway. Then when we saw you being chased by the creature, he refused to go help you because he said you were asking for it by taunting the thing."

She sat back and looked at Dean. "So, Dean, is that true? Were you really gonna leave me there to die?"

"I didn't know it was you! But, honestly, you were kinda asking for it, Lee."

"That is so like you," she said crossing her arms.

"Hey, we still saved your butt didn't we?"

"Yeah, after I forced you too," Sam added.

"Hey, that was only because I was so eager to visit our kid sister," Dean said with a serious look.

Carley softened up. "Really? You were?"

Sam looked at Dean thinking "who's the pussy now?"

"Course, I was. You're easier to tick off than Sammy is," Dean said, smirking.

Sam snickered as Carley punched Dean in the arm. Dean just laughed.

"Retard." Carley called Dean.

"Turd-face." He answered back as he started the car.

Sam just laughed along with Dean while Carley made a face as they drove off, heading towards Carley's place.


	5. Chapter 5

The three headed off to Carley's place.

Carley leaned in closer towards Dean and Sam, resting her elbows on the front seat, as she gave them the last directions to her house. She pointed as she spoke.

"Turn right here. It's just up ahead. The last house on the left."

Dean drove slowly, following Carley's directions. Carley had Sam and Dean perplexed once again as they realized she lived in a condo. Dean continued to drive slowly until finally letting it come to a complete stop as they neared her driveway. He seemed too perplexed to keep going. There was silence for a moment. Then Sam and Dean looked at each other, knowing what the other was thinking.

"You can pull up there on the driveway," Carley added.

They both turned around and faced Carley.

"What?" Carley felt awkward.

Dean and Sam looked at each other again. Dean started the car again and pulled up on Carley's driveway. He switched the car into park before turning around to face Carley again. Sam turned around, too.

"Seriously, Carley. What the heck? First you have a trunk full of weapons a girl your age, or actually anyone your age, shouldn't be carrying around or even know about. And now, you're telling me that you actually live in a place like this? What the heck, man? How do you pay for all this?"

Carley was a little startled by Dean's sudden reaction. She didn't really know how to answer him at that moment and honestly, she didn't really want to. Not yet. So instead, she tried to avoid giving him a straight answer.

"Well you see, there's this thing called cash, with pictures of old white men with messed up hairdos and you can use that to pa—" she decided to stop her sarcasm right there as both Dean and Sam shot her a 'cut the crap' look.

"Carley," Sam began, "What's going on, kiddo? Why can't you just give us a straight answer? Since we've picked you up and started asking questions you've been holding back. When we asked you about the weapons, you asked us to hold off 'til we took you home. We held our end, and you're still avoiding the questions. Why? What is it that you don't want to tell us?"

_Everything, _she thought. What was she supposed to tell them? The truth? The truth never really worked for her. It was overrated. Besides, she hadn't seen these guys in over six years. And now that she had, they were asking her questions that they wanted answered. And they were getting upset she wasn't doing just that. She felt bad and upset at the same time. She felt guilty about what Sam just said. Why wasn't she telling them the truth? Did she not trust them any longer? But she also felt upset and angry with them. Why should she answer them? Did they really deserve to know these things about her after six years of almost completely no contact? What about the questions she had? Didn't she have a right to ask questions and have them answered too? She deserved answers too, even though she hadn't really asked any questions yet. But at that moment, she felt like she was in the wrong for not answering their questions; yet she was also angry because they didn't seem to realize that she deserved some answers too.

She was about to tell them what she was thinking when they were interrupted by someone yelling Carley's name. The three of them looked up towards Carley's house. There, they saw, coming out of Carley's apartment, a man with a gun stoutly pointed at the three of them.

"Aw, crap," the three of them said in unison.


	6. Chapter 6

There was a lot of tension flying as the man kept calling out the name "Nikki" while at the same time telling the boys to get out of the car with their hands up. Sam and Dean were caught off guard and didn't really know what to do.

The moment Carley saw the man pointing his gun at them, she immediately jumped out of the car, in an attempt to neutralize the situation. Sam and Dean, who weren't sure who this guy was—whether Carley knew him or whether he was just some guy who broke into her apartment and saw them outside and decided to pull a gun on them—initially tried to stop Carley from getting out, afraid for her safety. But they were also worried about their own safety, not being too sure whether the guy would pull the trigger or not.

Carley jumped out of the car, her hands up in front of her as she tried calming the man down. The boys got out too, hands in front of them as well, showing the man they were unarmed. As Sam got out of the passenger side, the man thought he was trying to prevent Carley from coming to him, so he began pointing his gun at Sam and yelling at him to get away from her; but Sam's only attention was to prevent Carley from getting shot herself. Neither of them knew what was going on. It was just pure instinct for Sam to step in front of Carley to protect her.

Carley knew what Sam was doing but also realized that it wasn't helping the situation. She forced herself in front of him in order to get the man's attention.

"Ray! Ray!" she tried yelling over him, but his yelling was louder than hers. He pointed his gun back and forth between Dean and Sam, not sure whether they were gonna make a move on him.

Ray's attention seemed too focused on Dean and Sam that she was worried he really was gonna pull the trigger without knowing what was going on. Despite her yelling, Ray was still yelling at the boys, telling them to keep their hands up or he would shoot them. But knowing Ray, she thought he wouldn't even wait for a reason to shoot them; he'd just do so because he felt threatened.

Finally, Carley yelled as loud as she could above Ray's yelling, which ended up getting the whole neighborhood's attention. Ray's yelling alone had startled a few of them already, but now, it was certain every house around her knew of the situation now as well.

Ray stopped yelling, and so did Carley. All the neighbors in view of Carley's apartment were now, with heads peeped out their front door, watching Carley intently with wide eyes and shocked looks.

"Ray," Carley said, her hands still raised in front of her, trying to calm Ray down. "Dude, put the gun down, man. Just calm down. Don't shoot. Just put it down."

Ray was hesitant to listen to her.

"Who are they?" he said, his gun still firmly pointed at the boys.

Her heart was beating a thousand miles per hour. She was scared Ray would pull the trigger. She tried to catch her breath as she answered him.

"They're—they're friends of mine, alright?"

"I've never seen them before."

"I know. I know. But look, just put the gun down, Ray. You're making me nervous," she nervously chucked. "Come on, man. The neighbors are watching," she said in a quieter voice. "I'll explain everything to you inside alright? Can you just please put your gun down?" she pleaded.

He paused for a second, still not complying. He looked at Dean and Sam several more times, not seeming to trust them. Finally, he lowered the gun.

Carley let out a sigh of relief as did Dean and Sam, though the feelings of tension were still there. Ray still kept a careful watch on the guys.

She approached him, still somewhat being cautious. Sam and Dean continued to keep an eye Ray too, not too sure if they trusted him either.

"Nikki, what the heck is going on? What happened to you? Are you okay?" he asked as he looked at the small cut on her face.

Dean and Sam looked at each other at hearing Carley called Nikki.

She nodded.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm all right. I'll tell you everything, but first, can we all just go inside now please—out of the neighbor's view?"

She said it like a question but she didn't wait for an answer. Instead, she just started light pushing Ray towards the door. Ray, with a look of worry and confusion still on his face, let Carley push him inside. Carley gave Dean and Sam a look before going inside, signaling to them to give her a second before following her inside.

Once the door closed, Sam and Dean looked at each other again confused, but very relieved they were no longer facing the barrel of a gun. Then they both looked behind and around them to nosy neighbors still looking in. The moment they saw them looking at them, they shut their doors and curtains.

"Nice neighborhood." Sam told Dean.

Dean scoffed. "Yeah."

After about fifteen minutes, Carley's front door opened. Sam and Dean were leaning against the passenger side of the Impala with their backs toward her, talking. They turned around after hearing the door open.

"You guys wanna come in?"

There was a pause.

"I don't know. Is it safe?" Dean asked.

Carley shot him a look. "Yeah. It was just—you know…"

"No, we don't know, Carley. Or is it Nikki?" Sam said. "You seem to be having a lot of secrets here, kid. Care to share any of them?"

Carley looked down. There was another pause before Carley looked back up again and spoke up.

"Yeah…I know. I…I will. But inside okay?"

They nodded and followed her inside her house.


	7. Chapter 7

Before they entered the house completely, Carley stopped at the door midway and turned around to face the guys again.

"Oh, um, there's one more thing."

She seemed a little hesitant to continue, knowing by the look on their faces that by now, she was probably pressing her luck with them with all her secrets and lies. But she had no choice. It had to be done this way.

"Um, Dean…I, uh, I kinda told Ray that your name is Danny and Sam, you're Sean. Okay?" her voice sounded very hesitant and nervous.

Sam and Dean paused in surprise again.

"Whoa, you kinda what? Ca—" Dean was unable to continue question Carley. She immediately walked off after telling them that last news, purposely avoiding any confrontation with the two again at that moment.

Dean and Sam looked at each other again, still puzzled. Dean, however, was beginning to lose his patience. It had always been hard for both he and Sam to get pissed at Carley since she was a lot younger than them but she was definitely pushing it. Sam just shook his head in confusion again. He knew he couldn't do anything so he just shrugged and followed Carley inside. Dean lagged behind before finally going in himself and shutting the door.

It was quiet for a moment as awkward silence filled the room. Carley stood beside Ray near the stairs, straight ahead from Dean. Sam wasn't far off from Dean. The moment the boys entered, Ray stared them down, causing Dean and Sam too feel a little less than comfortable.

Despite her explaining the events that happened to Ray, she knew that Ray still didn't seem to trust them. Ray was like that. He was a protector…he liked to keep safe everyone who was close to him, but most especially Carley, or Nikki as he called her. He was always skeptical of people he had just met, only for the sake of making sure she would be safe. He didn't want any harm to come upon them. Ever since Ray met Carley, he felt like it was his duty to keep her safe and his duty to take on the role of a big brother—someone he felt like Carley never had since she was alone the day he found her.

Carley knew Ray felt this way about her. He wasn't just like that with her, but with all his friends. But to Ray, Carley was his little sister so he was more protective about her. She appreciated his love and concern for her. She was grateful to have found someone like him to care for her for all these years being alone. She found a family again with Ray and the rest of her friends. But she also knew that right now, wasn't a good time for Ray to go all "overly-protective" guy on her. She needed to talk to Dean and Sam. They had questions for her and so did she. She needed answers from them too about everything that's happened in the past six years. Right now, what she didn't need was for Ray to be there. She didn't need for him to know the truth about her past just yet. If he did, not only would that be a disaster for her, but for Dean and Sam as well. And although she was a bit upset at the boys, she still wanted to make sure that nothing bad happened to them either. She was happy to see them, but she also needed answers from them.

She had hoped talking things over with Ray a while earlier would help the situation. She knew that it took Ray a while to soften up to people he had just met, but she was hoping that he would trust her when she said these guys were cool. But despite her talk with Ray, he still continued to stare Sam and Dean down. Carley felt so awkward as she felt tension building up in the room. She decided to break the awkward silence.

She cleared her throat. 

"Um, Ray. Uh, this is Danny and his brother Sean. And, guys, this is Ray."

She looked at both Sam and Dean, indicating to them to shake hands with Ray. Dean didn't feel up to it. Basically, he didn't seem to trust Ray either. But Sam nudged Dean to do it anyway. Sam went first.

"Hey," Sam said with a smile as he stuck out his hand. "I'm Sean."

Ray stared at him for a moment, not doing anything.

"Ray," Carley whispered to Ray as she nudged him to shake Sam's hand. He looked at her, before softening up a little.

"Ray," he said, forcing out a smile as he shook hands with Sam. Dean did the same thing. "Hey," Ray continued, "sorry about that scene earlier. Didn't mean to pull out a gun on you guys like that."

"So what'd he mean to do? Pull out his wallet?" Dean whispered quietly to Sam. Sam elbowed him.

"Oh, yeah. No problem, man." Sam told him.

"So, I hear you're friends with Nikki?" Ray continued.

Carley was a little surprised at Ray. She expected a little but more tension coming from him but she was glad he seemed to be softening up. Whether this was a front or not, she didn't care; at the moment, all she cared about was that Ray seemed to be cool with Sam and Dean now.

"Yup," Dean said. "_Nikki's_ an old friend." He looked at Nikki.

"Yeah? How do you know her?" Ray asked.

_Crap,_ Carley thought. This was exactly what she didn't need right now. More questions…this time from Ray.

"Um, actually," Dean began, not sure what to say. "We—"

"Hey, Ray," Carley interrupted, "don't you have somewhere to be?" she smiled.

Dean was grateful for the interruption.

"Well, I—" Ray began. It was true he was supposed to be somewhere. But at the moment, he didn't feel like going. He was a little skeptical about the two "old friends" of Nikki whom he had never heard about til now. He kind of wanted to find out more info about them, but after looking at Carley, whose eyes indicated that when she said "don't you have somewhere to be," she meant "shouldn't you be leaving right now?" he knew he should probably go.

"Yeah, I do, actually have to be somewhere," Ray finished, smiling at Carley letting her know he read her. "Okay," he continued, "guess I better be going. Where you guys gonna stay anyway?" he asked the boys.

"Um, actually Ray, they're staying here," Carley said. Ray looked at her, hoping he had heard wrong.

"Come again?" he quietly asked her.

The boys knew that Ray probably wouldn't be okay with that considering how he was acting earlier. But on the ride to her place, Carley had insisted that they stay. As mentioned earlier, yeah, she was somewhat upset at the boys for the past, but she also knew that having them stay over her place was the best thing to do to get some answers. Even though she knew she'd have to give her share of answers too, she was willing to do that if it meant knowing more about them.

"Yeah, I invited them to crash here during their visit. I hope that's okay with you," she told Ray but didn't wait for an answer. "Guys, you wanna go ahead and grab your stuff from the car? I'll show you to the guest room in a sec okay?"

Ray was about to stop Dean and Sam but before he could say anything, Carley grabbed his arm and pulled him to the kitchen with her as Dean and Sam got their stuff.

"Whoa, they're what?" Ray sharply said to Carley.

"Ray, they're staying here, alright?"

"No, it's not alright!"

"Why not? I thought you were starting to be cool with them."

_No, that was a front_, he thought to himself. "Well that was before I knew you invited them to stay here."

"Ray. They're my friends okay? I'm not gonna just let them sleep in some cheap, crappy motel when they can stay here."

"Why not?"

Carley threw him a look.

"Look, I get that they're your friends, alright? And I get that you want to offer for them to stay here but do you really think that's a good idea?"

"Why wouldn't it be?"

"Because you don't know anything about them."

"Yeah, I do. They're my friends, Ray."

"Whom you haven't seen in over what, you said six years?"

"Ray, it's not like they're just some random stranger that I picked off from the street."

"Well, they might as well be."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"All I'm saying is, six years is a long time, Nikki. I mean have you even thought about what they're doing here?"

"Yeah, they're here to visit me."

"And they didn't think about calling you first?"

"They wanted to surprise me," she said in defense, although she knew Ray had a point.

Ray threw her a look. "Really?"

"They're like that, alright?"

"So they just happened to be driving by the moment you needed help?"

"Well it's a good thing they were. They saved my life, Ray."

"I thought you said all you got was a scratch, nothing life-threatening."

"Yeah, but making it sound like I could've died makes it a bit more dramatic don't you think?" she smiled smugly.

"Speaking of, what happened out there today, anyway? Ryan called and told me he found your car in a ditch."

"Nothing, I just lost control of the car," she lied.

"And ended up completely wrecking it?"

"Yeah, you mind not reminding me about that, please?"

"We were trying to call you, but you didn't answer."

"Yeah, I know. My phone was on vibrate. I must've not heard it."

"And you didn't think about calling me or the rest of us?"

"I was going to but then I got distracted."

"By your friends?"

Carley kept shrugged and nodded even though it was a lie.

"You had us worried."

"I'm sorry. I didn't know you were back in town."

"Does that make a difference? Ryan called me so I came back but that's no excuse for not calling any of us, Nikki. What if something had happened to you?" his voice raised.

"I know, I'm sorry, okay? It won't happen again."

"Right.," he said calmer.

Carley was beginning to get tired of the interrogation.

"Dude, aren't you late?" she abruptly changed the subject.

"What? Are you that desperate to get me out of here?" He looked at his watch. "But yeah, I am. So, you sure you'll be alright with these two?"

"Yes, I'll be fine. I'm fine."

"How's your face?" he asked as he looked at the cut on her cheek again.

"Still fine," she said as she moved her face off his hands. She hated the way he would coddle her sometimes. He made it seem like she was a baby. She wasn't; and it annoyed her sometimes.

"Right. Alright, just be careful, okay? Call me if there's a problem."

"There won't be. But yeah. I will."

"Alright," Ray said. He kissed Carley on the forehead before heading out of the kitchen. Dean and Sam were back in the living room when they were finished. The got up from the coach when they saw them come out.

Ray nodded off to them as to say "see ya later." Dean and Sam did the same to him.

Carley walked Ray to the to the garage and waited for him to leave. She waved as he drove off before shutting the garage door. Once she turned around, Sam and Dean were there, waiting for her and looking at her. They looked really worn from all the running around and she knew that their patience with her was probably now on a very thin line. Yet, she still stalled as much as she could to avoid another interrogation at that moment. She wanted at least a small break before going at it again, this time with Dean and Sam.

She forced out a smile. "Um, the guest room's up here."

She didn't wait for a response from them. She just headed up the stairs and hoped they would follow her. She wasn't ready for another confrontation just yet. Sam and Dean pretty much sensed what Carley was feeling too so they let her have her way. To Carley's relief, they did follow her, but not before letting out another sharp yet quiet sigh of frustration.


	8. Chapter 8

Carley led them to the guest room which was to the right of the stairs. She opened the door and stood in front of it, allowing the boys to enter along with her.

"Here it is," she said as she stretched out her arm towards the room as they went in. "Hope this is alright. You guys don't mind sharing the room, do you?"

Sam smiled. "No, we do it all the time."

"Unfortunately," Dean muttered causing Carley to chuckle as Sam threw Dean a look. "What?"

Sam rolled his eyes.

Carley just laughed at them. As she watched them, her mind wandered back to times when she was younger, when the three of them used to have so much fun together.

They always got on each other's nerves but it was also fun. They even had competitions a few times of who would get pissed off first. Sam always lost. It's funny how that happened. Usually, the youngest sibling would always be the one getting picked on and getting annoyed easily, but somehow, in this case, it was Sam. He just seemed to have a low tolerance for Dean's sarcasm at times. For Carley, however, whenever Dean and Sam would bicker, she just enjoyed sitting back and watching them. She always had a blast watching them go at it with each other. Sometimes, since all Carley did was watch as they boys bickered, she almost ended up winning. That was basically her plan. Just sit back and watch as they both piss each other off so she could be pronounced the winner. And she did win…but only once. Later on, the brothers caught on to Carley's technique. Once they knew her style of winning, they didn't go so easy on her anymore. But Dean always made sure than he went easier on her than Sam. After all, Carley was the baby of the family, even though he would never say that unless he really wanted to piss her off. He and Carley were 8 years apart; Sam and Carley were 4 years apart. But the three of them had always gotten along with each other. They were there for one another when they needed it.

She remembered the times when she was younger, she'd be waiting for Sam, Dean and John to return from a hunt while she stayed at a friend's house. She was so anxious for them to return or at least give her a call. She was too young to join them so basically her just was always worrying about them. She tried not to, but she couldn't help it. But then, the moment her father and brothers stepped through the front door, no matter what she'd be doing at that time, she'd drop it and run as fast as she could to welcome them home. Then, they each would take turns hugging her and asking "Did you miss me?" and of course, she did.

Carley smiled at that thought – the times when they were so close. It made her wonder what happened to them, why they left her. She lost six years of that warmth and love that she once had, and in all honesty, she was pissed about it. She had no idea what she did to make them leave her like that six years ago. She wanted so bad to yell at them right there and tell them how much it had hurt her…how much it _still_ hurts her. The only thing that kept running through her head at the moment was "Why?" What did she do?

But once again, she brushed this thought from her mind until she felt like it was the right time to bring it up. But a part of her wondered, would there ever really be a good time to bring it up? She just figured she'd go with the flow of things.

"Well, let me show you guys around," she smiled. She had to admit, even after everything, she was still pretty excited her brothers were there. She was excited to show them around.

"Wait, so you really live here?" Dean asked as they followed her around.

"No, I just like sleeping in a strangers house. Keeps me on the edge," she said too sincerely it sounded like the truth.

Sam snickered at Carley's sarcasm to Dean, allowing memories to surface in his mind now, too, of times when they were always sarcastic to one another years ago. Apparently, time didn't change that fact.

Dean couldn't help but smirk at Carley either, proud that Carley got her sarcasm from him.

"I taught you well," he told her and she smirked too.

"There's not much to see, but there's the rest room," she said as she pointed to the door adjacent to Dean and Sam's room. "My room's down here." She headed down the stairs.

"Wow, this is nice."

Carley stopped to look at what Dean was referring to. He was referring to the upstairs balcony. He liked the way the upstairs was open, making the hallway leading to the other rooms seem like another room in itself. He seemed to like the way he could see the whole house from that spot. Carley didn't really know what was so nice about it, but she humored him.

"Yup."

Sam followed her down the stairs, followed by Dean. She showed them the rest of the house. At the bottom of the stairs, to the left of it, was another small hallway leading to the garage. The other bathroom was to the left of the garage and beside that, was the kitchen.

"And that, right there, is my room." She pointed to the room right across the kitchen.

They three went in her room.

"Nice," the brothers said.

"Why's your room down here?" Sam said.

"I don't know. Just liked it better here."

"And why wouldn't she? Dude, you have _another _bathroom? How many bathrooms does this place need? And a walk-in closet?" Dean complained. "Jeez, what the heck, Carley?"

She just shrugged.

"Hey, Carley?"

"Yeah?" She noticed Sam was back in the living room looking upstairs, pointing up. Dean and Carley joined him.

"So whose room is that?" he pointed to the other room upstairs.

"Oh, that's Ray's room. But he's not here all the time, so..."

She stopped when they looked at her again. She knew what they were thinking.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, guys. It's not what you think, okay? We're not—he's not—dude, he's like your age!"

"What's wrong with my age?"

"What? W—nothing, Dean. I'm just saying that whatever you guys are thinking right now isn't what's going on."

"Yeah, that seems to be the theme of the day," Dean said. "Carley, I think Sam would agree with me if I said I think right now's a good time to—"

"Talk," she finished his sentence. "I know…okay."

_Here I go_, she thought.


	9. Chapter 9

Carley finally spilled out everything…at least for the most part. A lot happens within six years; therefore, a person is bound to have stories to tell and secrets to tell. But apparently, Carley's stories took a lot out of the boys…it was a lot for them to take in. At first, she was a bit hesitant to tell them the truth. After all, it had been a long time since she last saw/spoke to her brothers. But she quickly changed her mind, remembering that despite everything that's happened between them in the past, there was one thing that was always certain for these guys: they could always be trusted, especially when it came to family secrets. These guys were her brothers. Although they hadn't exactly been there for her in the past six years, they had always been there for her in the past. They were still her family and she thought that they should know the truth about her…at least most of it. Besides a few questions every now and then, the boys kept quiet as she told them her life story from the past six years.

Once she had finished telling them what she thought was good enough for that day, it was already late in the evening. Sam and Dean seemed too stunned, their mouths with somewhat left wide-open from shock.

Carley squirmed. She wasn't exactly sure how her brothers were taking everything she told them. She knew they were shocked, heck, she would be too if she were in their position. But she couldn't tell if they were mad at her – either for not telling them sooner or telling them the truth about what it was she really did and what had been going on in her life in the past six years.

She looked back and forth between the brothers who sat on the couch across from her. First there was a few seconds pause as she waited for someone to say something. But then the seconds turned to minutes. She wished that they would say something – she couldn't take the silence.

"Um, you guys gonna say something?" she said hesitantly, desperately needing a reaction from then besides their opened mouths.

"Wow," Dean said as he rubbed his lips with his hand.

"You guys mad at me?" she asked a little anxious.

"For what, working for the bad guys?" Dean said.

"So you are mad."

"Wh—no, no, we're not. It's just…wow. So you really work for the FBI?" Sam still had a hard time believing it.

"No, I told you. It's not the FBI. We're not affiliated with them or any other agency. We have our own set of rules, our own protocols to follows, our own agency. But it's something like it. It's government sanctioned but it's also somewhat unknown – kind of classified."

"Wow," Dean repeated again.

"So wait," Sam began, wanting to be sure, "if you say you guys are kinda like the FBI, then that would mean that you know all about—"

"Your and Dean's extracurricular activities?" she finished Sam's question. "Yeah, I do. Since St. Louis."

They sat back and looked at each other, even more surprised.

"That's why I had to give Ray fake names for you guys. Well, one, because he doesn't know that I even have any existing family members left and secondly, because of—you know."

"But didn't you say you guys specialize in finding unfindable criminals? How did he not even recognize us? We're all over the FBI's database—the most wanted list."

"Because they've never seen that list, not the real one anyway."

Dean and Sam looked confused.

"I've been hacking into our own system. Anytime red flags come up about you guys, I get an alert about it and I tamper with it before the rest of my team gets a look at it. I make an altered version of the original profile, and repost it onto our system then I delete the original."

"But don't you guys have logs for that? Like isn't it recorded each time the system is accessed?"

"Well, yeah it is. But…I take care of it. You guys aren't the only ones who are good at covering your tracks you know? It's in my blood too." She offered a smile.

The boys chuckled and smiled too.

"Yeah, I guess living dangerously has always been in our blood," Dean said.

"Yeah…especially when you're twelve years old and alone right? You have no choice but to try to survive and live dangerously in this dangerous world right?" she didn't meant to bring up the subject now; it just slipped.

Dean and Sam's smile faded, becoming serious. They realized that it was her turn now to ask questions.

"Carley," Dean began but she stopped him.

Her feelings of hurt returned. She could feel it surfacing so she tried to fight it away and avoid the subject.

She looked at her watch. "Hey, it's late," she interrupted to avoid talking about it just then. She forced out a smile. "You guys should get to bed. I remember how tiring those road trips across the country can get. Um, if you guys get hungry, feel free to scout through the kitchen. If you need anything else, don't hesitate to get me up okay? Seriously."

They both just nodded, knowing her intentions to avoid the subject.

"Alright, well good night guys. It was—it's really good to see you guys again," she smiled.

They smiled back.

"You too, kid." Sam said.

"Night," Dean said.

Carley said 'good night' one more time before heading into her bedroom, leaving Dean and Sam standing there in her living room. She felt bad for interrupting Dean but she knew that she probably couldn't take the truth right now. Besides, they could all only take in so much for one day. It took a lot out of her to tell them everything; she figured she wouldn't be able to take in any other piece of truth from them.

She closed her door and leaned her back against it, allowing herself to slowing slide to the floor as her door supported her. For a while, she just sat there on the floor, thinking about everything – the past, present, future. She had so many questions to ask them and she was beginning to regret not letting Dean continue. But she knew it was for the best. They needed a break and so did she. They would talk again in the morning…that is, if her brothers decided not to ditch her again. She knew they probably wouldn't. I mean, there must've been a reason why they made the trouble to travel all the way back to Virginia just to see her. She just trusted that her brothers would stick around this time, long enough to answer her questions. She had so many to ask.

But then she wondered, why were they there? She wanted to ask that from the start but she knew it might allow some upsetting feelings to surface, as right now. She didn't want to be upset and mad just then. She honestly was happy to see them and if it meant anything, she wanted their first day with her after six years to be a happy one…at least a semi-happy one. So she allowed it to end the way it did. She'll ask them questions in the morning. For now, she should let them rest and get to bed.

After Carley shut the door, Sam and Dean just stood there for a while as well, taking in everything they learned about their little sister that night. Afterwards, Sam called it a night and headed upstairs to their room while Dean decided to hang around and scope out the rest of the kid's place. Of course, the first place he checked out was the kitchen. At first, he was hesitant to just grab the food lying around but then he figured his sister knew him enough to know he'd do it anyway; so he pigged out.

He grabbed some cookies and chips from the counter and then turned around to look into the pantry. There, he found a few cases of beer.

"Sweet!" he said as he grabbed one. But then he stopped.

He glanced at the beer before looking towards Carley's room. He thought for a moment. He calculated in his head how old Carley was and realized she was underage to be drinking; so he was wondering what the heck beer was doing in her pantry. But then he remembered that Ray lived there sometimes too.

_Ugh, Ray. I don't like him,_ he thought. Somehow, he still didn't trust the guy even after Carley told them that all he was was a guardian for Carley. He had been taking care of her for the past six years. Dean didn't like the idea that someone had "replaced" his role as a brother even though he knew it was his fault when he had first left Carley six years ago. He was Carley's brother…not some stranger that she met six years ago. All he knew was that he didn't trust him. From the moment he saw him, he got a weird vibe from…like this guy was hiding something. He felt like this Ray guy was a threat not only to him and Sam, but also to Carley. He needed to find out more about this guy.

Dean had a reason why he suggested that they visit Carley. He wanted to explain why he left in the first place. But not only that, he had something really important to tell her; he was just a little uncertain how to tell her. He hadn't even told Sam about his dreams yet either. He knew he should, but honestly, his dream had scared the crap out of him. He wasn't sure how to tell Sam about, let alone Carley. All he knew was that the reason why he asked to visit Carley in the first place, was so she could join them, be with them. Dean really needed Carley to join them. It was practically a matter of life and death…literally. He was worried about her…he missed having his little sister around to annoy him all day.

He shook off these thoughts for the moment. He figured all this serious thinking could be done in the morning. He had to prep himself for that conversation and brace himself for the reaction she and Sam might give him. But for now, all he was concerned with was enjoying himself as he pigged out on beer, chips and cookies. He brought his snacks to the couch and turned on the TV, a little too happy with his junk food.

A few hours later, Carley's door opened. She didn't usually sleep much at night…something seemed to always trouble her when she tried to sleep. So she decided to just take naps throughout the day to fill in her sleeping hours. She usually just worked on some college homework and work stuff throughout the night, or she would just watch some TV.

She opened her door and was headed to the kitchen when she was startled by some noises behind her. It sounded like muffled gunshots followed by a roar. She quickly turned around to see the TV on and that the muffled gunshots were coming from there. She quietly laughed when she realized what the roar that she heard actually was. It was Dean, sound asleep, snoring loudly.

"I guess some things never change," she told herself as she smiled at the appearance of her brother sleeping on the couch, surrounded by food and beer bottles.

She approached him and found that the TV remote was still in his hand. She gently took it from him and turned off the TV before placing the remote back on the table. She went back into her room to grab a blanket from her closet and placed it onto Dean. She was glad to see that he seemed so relaxed as he was stretched out on the couch. She figured that they probably haven't had a really good relaxing night of sleep for a while since they've probably been always on the alert in case the law decided to come down on them while they slept. She stepped back and looked at him. It wasn't until then that she realized how much she really did miss her brothers. Six years not having these guys around was way too long. She smiled one more time at him before quietly grabbing the empty beer bottles and empty bags of snacks and putting them in the kitchen.

"Good night, big brother."


End file.
